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Afghan (name)
The ethnonym Afghan ( ) has been used in reference to the Pashtun people during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period.[http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=06901021&ct=10 History Of The Mohamedan Power In India] by Muhammad Qāsim Hindū Šāh Astarābādī Firištah, The Packard Humanities Institute Persian Texts in Translation. The name Afghanistan ( ) is a derivation from the ethnonym, originally in the loose meaning "land of the Afghans (Pashtuns)" and referred to the territory inhabited by Pashtun tribes south of the Hindu Kush and was later adopted by the Pashtun-dominated kingdoms of Kabul. The name Afghan is believed to be first attested in its Arabic form in the 10th century Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam.The Khalaj West of the Oxus; excerpts from "The Turkish Dialect of the Khalaj", Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol 10, No 2, pp 417-437 (retrieved 10 January 2007). It likely derives from a Sanskritic tribal name, Aśvaka, used in reference to the Kambojas in antiquity. The Arabic is an adaptation of the Prakritic form अवगाना ( ), as first used by Varahamihira in his Bṛhat Saṃhitā in 6th century CE. Since the Middle Ages, "Afghan" has been used as a synonym for Pashtun, while the native name for the ethnic group is "Pashtun". Afghan The Pashtun people were called Afghans in the past, since at least the 7th century AD and onwards. A Chinese pilgrim, Xuanzang, who visited the Afghanistan area in 629 AD mentions about Afghans in Zhob.Dawn News, The cradle of Pathan culture The Encyclopædia Iranica explains:Ch.M. Kieffer, "Afghan" (with ref. to "Afghanistan: iv. Ethnography"), in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition 2006, (LINK) Classical Muslim sources According to several scholars such as V. Minorsky, W.K. Frazier Tyler and M.C. Gillet, the word Afghan first appears in the 982 AD Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where a reference is made toWillem Vogelsang, The Afghans, Edition: illustrated Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2002, Page 18, ISBN 0631198415, 9780631198413 Saul was probably located near Gardez, in the Paktia province of Afghanistan. Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam also speaks of a king in "Ninhar" (Nangarhar), who shows a public display of conversion to Islam, even though he has over 30 wives, which are described as "Muslim, Afghan, and Hindu" wives. The distinction between Muslim, Hindu, and Afghan is very intriguing, since this shows that that they were not considered Muslim, nor Hindu, but rather something else. Al-Utbi, the Ghaznavid chronicler, in his Tarikh-i Yamini records that recruitment for Sabuktigin's army was answered by Afghans and the 'Khalaj' (possibly related to modern Ghilzai), and he enrolled thousands of them. With these armies he twice defeated the Hindushahi King Jaipal in Laghman and Nangarhar, and drove him out of the upper Kabul valley, capturing immense treasures. Al-Utbi further states that Afghans and Ghilzai made a part of Mahmud Ghaznavi's army and were sent on his expedition to Tocharistan, while on another occasion Mahmud Ghaznavi attacked and punished Afghans, as also corroborated by Abulfazl Beyhaqi.R. Khanam, Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: P-Z, Volume 3‎ - Page 18 In the 11th century AD, an explicit mentioning of Afghans appears in Al-Biruni's Tarikh-ul Hind ("History of India"), which mentions "rebellious" Afghans as "Hindus", whose tribal lands he passed by. Al-Biruni probably also refers to Afghans in another passage (loc. Cit. p. 199) where he mentions an uncivilized (Willem Vogelsang uses the word "savage") people in the mountains that form the western frontier of India (i.e. Suleiman Mountains) whom he describes as tribes of Hindus or akin to them, but this is uncertain.A Glossary Of The Tribes And Castes Of The Punjab And North-West Frontier Province Vol. 3 By H.A. Rose, Denzil Ibbetson Sir Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1997, Page 211, ISBN 8185297703, 9788185297705 Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan traveler, visiting Kabul in 1333 AD writes:Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, ed. by Sir H. A. Rosskeen Gibb, Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2004, p. 180 (extract) Firishta, a 16th century Persian historian writing about the history of Muslim rule in India states: In the writings of the 17th-century Pashto poet Khushal Khan Khattak, the equation of Afghan and Pashtun is further confirmed:extract from "Passion of the Afghan" by Khushal Khan Khattak; translated by C. Biddulph in "Afghan Poetry Of The 17th Century: Selections from the Poems of Khushal Khan Khattak", London, 1890 Afghanistan collection by James Rattray showing the name Afghaunistan on the front cover.]] The last part of the name -stān is a Persian suffix for "place of". The term "Afghanistan", meaning the "Land of Afghans", was mentioned by the 16th century Mughal Emperor Babur in his memoirs, referring to the territories south of Kabul that were inhabited by tribes called "Afghans". Babur states:Zāhir ud-Dīn Mohammad Bābur in Bāburnāma, "Transactions of the year 908", translated by John Leyden, Oxford University Press 1921 (LINK) Regarding the modern state of "Afghanistan", the Encyclopædia Of Islam states:M. Longworth Dames, G. Morgenstierne, R. Ghirshman, "Afghānistān", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition Ashvaka The etymological view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Aśvakas, qv. the Assakenoi of Arrian.Arrian writes them Assakenoi. Strabo also calls them Assakanoi, but Curtius calls them Assacani. This view was propounded by scholars like Christian Lassen,Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol I, fn 6; also Vol II, p 129, et al. J. W. McCrindle,"The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... " (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J. W. McCrindle). M. V. de Saint Martin,Etude Sur la Geog Grecque & c, pp 39-47, M. V. de Saint Martin. and É. Reclus,The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83, Élisée Reclus - Geography. and has been supported by numerous modern scholars."Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses" (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan).cf: "Their name (Afghan) means "cavalier" being derived from the Sanskrit, ''Asva, or Asvaka, a horse, and shows that their country must have been noted in ancient times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. Asvaka was an important tribe settled north to Kabul river, which offered a gallant resistance but ineffectual resistance to the arms of Alexander "(Ref: Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1999, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society)."Afghans are Assakani of the Greeks; this word being the Sanskrit Ashvaka meaning 'horsemen' " '' (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood).Cf: "The name represents Sanskrit Asvaka in the sense of a ''cavalier, and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of Alexander" '' (Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological..by Henry Yule, AD Burnell).See few more references on Asvaka = Afghan: The Numismatic Chronicle, 1893, p 100, Royal Numismatic Society (Great Britain); Awq, 1983, p 5, Giorgio Vercellin; Der Islam, 1960, p 58, Carl Heinrich Becker, Maymūn ibn al-Qāsim Tabarānī; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City), University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Literary History of Ancient India in Relation to Its Racial and Linguistic Affiliations, 1970, p 17, Chandra Chakraberty; Stile der Portugiesischen lyrik im 20 jahrhundert, p 124, Winfried Kreutzen.; See: Works, 1865, p 164, Dr H. H. Wilson; The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1891, p 83; Chants populaires des Afghans, 1880, p clxiv, James Darmesteter; Nouvelle geographie universelle v. 9, 1884, p.59, Elisée Reclus; Alexander the Great, 2004, p.318, Lewis Vance Cummings (Biography & Autobiography); Nouveau dictionnaire de géographie universelle contenant 1o La géographie physique ... 2o La .., 1879, Louis Rousselet, Louis Vivien de Saint-Martin; An Ethnic Interpretation of Pauranika Personages, 1971, p 34, Chandra Chakraberty; Revue internationale, 1803, p 803; Journal of Indian History: Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, Trivandrum, India (City). University of Kerala. Dept. of History; Edinburgh University Publications, 1969, p 113, University of Edinburgh; Shi jie jian wen, 1930, p 68 by Shi jie zhi shi chu ban she. Cf also: Advanced History of Medieval India, 1983, p 31, Dr J. L. Mehta; Asian Relations, 1948, p 301, Asian Relations Organization ("Distributed in the United State by: Institute of Pacific Relations, New York."); Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1892, p 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society - Geography; The geographical dictionary of ancient and mediaeval India, 1971, p 87, Nundo Lal Dey; Nag Sen of Milind Paṅhö, 1996, p 64, P. K. Kaul - Social Science; The Sultanate of Delhi, 1959, p 30, Ashirbadi Lal Srivastava; Journal of Indian History, 1965, p 354, University of Kerala Dept. of History, University of Allahabad Dept. of Modern Indian History, University of Travancore - India; Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, 1858, p 313, fn 3, Stanislas Julien Xuanzang - Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the word ashva (Iranian aspa, Prakrit assa) means "horse", and ashvaka (Prakrit assaka) means "horseman",Ref: Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times, 1915, p 140, Dr K. P. Jayaswal; Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood); Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture Abroad, 1980, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra; Stile der portugiesischen Lyrik im 20. Jahrhundert, 1980, p 124, Winfried Kreutzer. "horse people",Al-Hind, The Making of Indo-Islamic World, 2002, p 84, Andre Wink; The Rise of the Indo-Afghan Empire, C. 1710-1780, 1995, p 16, JJL Gommans; Journal of Indian History Golden Jubilee Volume, 1973, p 470, University of Kerala, Department of History; A Geographical Introduction to the History of Central Asia, 1944, K. B. Codrington. "land of horses",Historical Geography of Madhya Pradesh, From Early Records, 1977, p 3, Dr P. K. Bhattacharya; Proceedings of the World of Sanskrit Conference. 1985, p 783, International association of Sanskrit. as well as "horse breeders".Encyclopedia of Religions of Faiths of Man, Part I, 2003, p 554, J. G. R. Forlong. Pre-Christian times knew the people of the Hindukush region as Ashvakas (horsemen), since they raised a fine breed of horses and had a reputation for providing expert cavalrymen. The fifth-century-BCE Indian grammarian Pāṇini calls them Ashvakayana''Ashtadhyayi, Nadadi gana IV-1, 99 and ''Ashvayana.Ashtadhyayi Sutra IV-1, 110History and Culture of Indian People, the Age of Imperial Unity, Vol II, p 45, Dr A. D. Pusalkar, Dr R. C. Majumdar, Dr Munshi etc; Panjab Past and Present, pp 9-10, Dr Buddha Parkash; See also: History of Porus, pp 12, 38; Ancient India, 2003, pp 260-61, Dr V. D. Mahajan; India as Known to Pāṇini, pp 456-57, Dr V. S. Aggarwala; Preliminary Notes on the Excavation of the Necropolises found in Western Pakistan and The Tombs of the Asvakayana-Assakenoi, Antonini, Chiara Silvi & Tucci, Giuseppe, pp 13 to 28; 'Asvakayana-Assakenoi', East and West, NS,. 14 (Roma, t963), pp 27-28. Mahabharata mentions them as Ashvaka(na). Classical writers, however, use the respective equivalents Aspasioi (or Aspasii, Hippasii) and Assakenoi (or Assaceni/Assacani, Asscenus) etc. The Aspasioi/Assakenoi (Ashvakas = Cavalrymen) is stated to be another name for the Kambojas of ancient texts because of their equestrian characteristics.Political History of Ancient India, 1996, p 133 fn 6, pp 216-20, (Also Commentary p 576 fn 22), Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukerjee; Historie du bouddhisme Indien, p110, Dr E. Lammotte; History of Poros, 1967, p 89; East and West, 1950, pp 28, 149, 158, Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Editor, Prof Giuseppe Tucci, Co-editors Prof Mario Bussagli, Prof Lionello Lanciotti; History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, 1988, P 100, History; Panjab Past and Present, pp 9-10, Dr Buddha Parkash. J. W. McCrindle says that the modern Afghanistan -- the Kaofu (Kambu) of Hiun Tsang was ancient Kamboja, and the name Afghan evidently derives from the Ashavakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian (Alexandra's Invasion of India, p 38; Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180, J. McCrindle); Ancient Kamboja, People and Country, 1981, pp 271-72, 278, Dr J. L. Kamboj; These Kamboj People, 1979, pp 119, 192, K. S. Dardi; Kambojas, Through the Ages, 2005, pp 129, 218-19, S Kirpal Singh; Sir Thomas H. Holdich, in the his classic book, (The Gates of India, p 102-03), writes that the Aspasians (Aspasioi) represent the modern Kafirs. But the modern Kafirs, especially the Siah-Posh Kafirs (Kamoz/Camoje, Kamtoz) etc are considered to be modern representatives of the ancient Kambojas. Other noted scholars supporting this view are Dr Romilla Thapar, Dr R. C. Majumdar etc. Alexander Cunningham and a few other scholars identify these designations with the modern name Afghan.The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, Including the Campaigns of Alexander, p 87, Alexander Cunningham; India as Seen in the Brhatsamhita of Varahamihira, 1969, p 70, Dr Ajay Mitra Shastri. The Indian epic Mahabharata speaks about Kambojas among the finest horsemen,Journal of American Oriental society, 1889, p 257, American Oriental Society; Mahabharata 10.18.13. and ancient Pali texts describe their lands as the land of horses.Kambojo assa.nam ayata.nam i.e Kamboja the birthplace of horse......(|| Samangalavilasini, Vol I, p 124||).Aruppa-Niddesa of Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa describes the Kamboja land as the base of horses (10/28)In the Anushasnaparava section of Mahabharata, the Kambojas are specifically designated as Ashava.yuddha.kushalah (expert cavalrymen). :tatha Yavana Kamboja Mathuram.abhitash cha ye | :ete 'ashava.yuddha.kushalahdasinatyasi charminah. || 5 ||. Kambojas spoke Avestan language and followed Zoroastrianism.Jataka, Vol VI, pp 208, 210 (trans Fausboll); The Jataka, VI, p 110, (Trans. E. B. Cowell) + Videvati XIV.5-6 + Herodotus (I.140); Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1912, p 256, Dr Grierson; Das Volk Der Kamboja bei Yaska, First Series of Avesta, Pahlavi and Ancient Persian Studies in honour of the late Shams-ul-ulama Dastur Peshotanji Behramji Sanjana, Strassberg & Leipzig, 1904, pp 213 ff, Dr Ernst Kuhn*Dr V. S. Agarwala writes: "As shown in the Jataka and Avestic literature, the Kamboja was the center of ancient Iranian civilization as is evidenced by the peculiar customs of the country " (Ref: The Kamboja Janapada, January 1964, Purana, Vol VI, No 1, p 229; Jataka edited by Fausboll, Vol VI, p 210.) *Dr Michael Witzel: "The Kambojas, located somewhere in east Afghanistan, spoke Iranian language and followed Zoroastrian habits of killing lower animals." (Early Eastern Iran and the Atharvaveda, Persica-9, 1980, fn 81, p 114; Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, Vol. 7 (2001), issue 3 (May 25), Art. 9). *Dr D. C. Sircar: "The Kambojas were of Iranian extractions .. they were settled in Afghanistan region in Uttarapatha. Their numbers were occasionally swelled by new migrants from Iran, especially during age of Achaemenians." (Purana, Vol. V, No. 2, July 1963, p 256, Dr D. C. Sircar). *Willem Vogelsang: "The name Kamboja was commonly applied in Indian sources to the Iranian population of the borderlands i.e Afghanistan." (The Afghans (Peoples of Asia), 2001, p 127). *Dr R. Thapar: "The Kambojas were a tribe of the Iranians " (History of India, Vol. I, 1997, p 276). *E. Benveniste: "The Kambojas ... were known in Indian traditions as a foreign people, with peculiar customs, ... raised celebrated horses, spoke - as the Nirukata (II,2.8) tells us - a language with Iranian words in it ... and had, according to Buddhist Jataka (VI.206, 27-30), a certain religious practice - the killing of insects, moths, snakes and worms - which we may recognize as Mazdean from the passages in Mazdean books like the Videvati (XIV.5-6) as well as from the remark of Herodotus (I.140) about the Persian religion " (Journal Asiatique, CCXLVI 1958, I, pp 47-48, E. Benveniste). Some scholars believe Zoroastrianism originated in land of Kambojas.Cf: "Zoroastrian religion had probably originated in Kamboja-land (Bacteria-Badakshan)....and the Kambojas spoke Avestan language" (Ref: Bharatiya Itihaas Ki Rup Rekha, p 229-231, Jaychandra Vidyalankar; Bhartrya Itihaas ki Mimansa, p 229-301, J. C. Vidyalankar; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, p 217, 221, J. L. Kamboj). The former Aspins of Chitral and Ashkuns (Yashkuns) of Gilgit are identified as the modern representatives of the Pāṇinian Aśvakayanas (Greek: Assakenoi); and the Asip/Isap (cf. Aspa-zai > Yusufzai) in the Kabul valley (between the rivers Kabul and Indus) are believed to be modern representatives of the Pāṇinian Aśvayanas (Greek: Aspasioi) respectively.The Quarterly Review, 1873, p 537, William Gifford, George Walter Prothero, John Gibson Lockhart, John Murray, Whitwell Elwin, John Taylor Coleridge, Rowland Edmund Prothero Ernle, William Macpherson, William Smith.An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, 1893, p 75, Henry Walter Bellew.The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as Described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, 1893, p 334, John Watson M'Crindle, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Marcus Junianus Justinus, Plutarch, Arrian, Diodorus.Evolution of Heroic Tradition in Ancient Panjab, 1971, p 72; History of Punjab, Publication Bureau Punjabi University Patiala, 1997, p 225, Dr Buddha Prakash .A Comprehensive History of India, Vol II, p 118, Dr Nilkantha Shastri. Later forms In the 3rd century CE, Sassanids referred to a tribe called Abagân.Encyclopædia Britannica, Afghanistan History, Online Edition LINK Persian Abagan is the same as Sanskrit Avagan, being referred to in the writings of Varaha Mihira. In the 6th century CE, the Indian astronomer Varāha Mihira referred to the Ashvakayana of Pāṇini or the Ashvaka(na) of Mahabharata as Avagānā.Varahamihira's Brhata-Samhita(11.61; 16.37-38); India as Seen in the Brhatsamhita of Varahamihira, 1969, p 70, Dr Ajay Mitra Shastri; Afghanistan: Its People, Its Society, Its Culture, 1962, p 40, Donald Newton Wilber; Country Survey Series, p 42, Human Relations Area Files, inc; Contemporary West Asian Scene: A Selection of Papers Presented at a Seminar Held at Aligarh, 1980, p 252, Arif H. Rizvi, Aligarh Muslim University Centre of West Asian Studies; Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India: (a Study on the Puranic Lists of the Peoples of Bharatavarsa), 1955, p 104, Dr Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri; Indo-Afghan Relations, 1947-67 (edition 1976), p 1, Hasan Ali Shah Jafri. In the 7th century CE, the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang noted the term as A-po-kien, during his visit to eastern Afghanistan.BA Litvinsky, History of civilizations of Central Asia, pg 385, Link Historical suggestions There are a number of other hypotheses suggested for the name historically, all of them obsolete. *The "Maḫzan-e Afġān" by Nimat Allah al-Harawi, written in 1612 at the Mughal court, traces the name Afghan to an eponymous ancestor, an Afghana, identified as a grandson of Saul. Afghana was supposedly a son of Irmia (Jeremia), who was in turn a son of Saul (Talut). Afghana was orphaned at a young age, and brought up by David. When Solomon became king, Afghana was promoted as the commander-in-chief of the army. Neither Afghana nor Jeremia son of Saul figure in the Hebrew Bible. Some four centuries after Afghana, in the sixth century BCE, Bakhtunnasar, or Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babil, attacked the Kingdom of Judah and exiled the descendants of Afghana, some of whom went to the mountains of Ghor in present-day Afghanistan and some to the neighborhood of Mecca in Arabia. Until the time of Muhammad, the deported Children of Israel of the east continually increased in number in the countries around Ghor which included Kabul, Kandahar and Ghazni, and made wars with the infidels around them. Khalid bin Walid is said to belong to the tribe of descendants of Afghana in the neighborhood of Mecca, although actually he was from the tribe of Quraysh. After conversion to Islam, Khalid invited his kinsmen, the Children of Israel of Ghor, to Islam. A deputation lead by Qais proceeded to Medina to meet Muhammad, and embraced Islam. Muhammad lavished blessings on them, and gave the name Abdur Rashid to Qais, who returned to Ghor successfully to propagate Islam. Qais had three sons, Sarbanr, Batan and Ghourghusht, who are progenitors of the various Pashtun tribes.Olaf Caroe, The Pathans: 550 BC - AD 1957, Link *Samuel G. Benjamin (1887) derived the name Afghan from a term for 'wailing', which the Persians are said to have contemptuously used for their plaintive eastern neighbors.Persia, p 142, Samuel G. Benjamin. *H. W. Bellew, in his 1891 An Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan, believes that the name Afghan comes from Alban which derives from the Latin term albus, meaning "white", or "mountain", as mountains are often white-capped with snow (cf. Alps); used by Armenians as Alvan or Alwan, which refers to mountaineers, and in the case of transliterated Armenian characters, would be pronounced as Aghvan or Aghwan. To the Persians, this would further be altered to Aoghan, Avghan, and Afghan as a reference to the eastern highlanders or "mountaineers". *Michanovsky suggests the name Afghan derives from Sanskrit Avagana, which in turn derives from the ancient Sumerian word for Badakhshan - Ab-bar-Gan, or "high country".John Charles Griffiths, Afghanistan, pg 13Gary W. Bowersox, Bonita E, Gemstones of Afghanistan, pg 27 *There are also a few people who have attempted to link "Afghan" to an Uzbek word "Avagan" said to mean "original".Gankovsky, Yu. V., et al. "A History of Afghanistan." Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1982. 8vo. Cloth. 359 p. USD 22.50 See also *Afghan (disambiguation) *Afghanistan *Pashtun people *List of country name etymologies References Name Category:Kambojas Afghanistan